How did I miss this thread??? Well, it was hiding back at the begining of the recipes sectio... maybe. It coulda been move to there from the Chili section? But I went all the way back in the Chili section when I first came here in 2005. Anyway...;
Warning... Long Post!
Mellow, your post almost tells the real story. And you won't hear the real story unless I posted it here, or at other forums. Anyway, you can believe it or not. Hmm, maybe I need to contact Ripply's about this? Anyway again;
My Grandfather was a mostly pay phone repairman, for what he always called "Mother Bell", for the last 20 yrs. or so before he retired. His first job was digging post holes for telephone poles. He was born in 1900 and moved to Dallas, from Oklahoma, in 1920. They were always trying to promote him but he said "nope! I'm happy with what I'm doing". He told me that he had seen many fellow Ma Bell employees get promoted just to get in over their head and become unhappy. Anyway (No.4)... :
My Pawpaw was a BIG fan of Wolf Brand Chili. There was always a can heating on the grill when he cooked hot dogs, or almost anything. I do not remember life before eating Wolf Brand and Frito Chili Pie made w/ Wolf.
His travels for Ma Bell caused him to know ALL the best places to have lunch and he knew LOTSA folks. He told me, as a child, that he knew the lady who's sons invented Fritos. So... "Big Deal!" I thought as a kid.
Many years later, while eating some Frito Pie w/ my Pawpaw, he told me that the lady, who's sons invented Fritos, had given him some Fritos to try out before they actually started selling them. He liked them, and while eating some he got the idea to eat them, instead of saltine crackers, w/ his Wolf chili. He told me he got the idea to put some chili on top of the Fritos. But, he didn't like that idea because the Fritos became soggy. So... he would do some Wolf, some chopped onions, and some "rat" cheese, and then top things off w/ the Fritos. That is the way I always ate Frito Pie w/ my Pawpaw but... I would get fussed at for stirring my Fritos in w/ the chili, along w/ the cheese and onions, cause I kinda liked em soggy. And the cheese would melt and the onions would get softer.
Anyway (No. 5), my Pawpaw gave up on trying to talk some sense into me about those lousy soggy Fritos and now tells me that he told the lady, who had given him his first Fritos, about them getting soggy if you put chili over them. But that they were good to eat w/ chili, and that they were also good as long as you put them on top. He said that she made some for her sons, and that they that they liked he idea, but agreed that the chili should be put on top of their Fritos. Well... again I thought "Big Deal!". Interesting story but who cares. Except by then I did think it was kinda neat that he knew the lady who's sons invented Fritos. But, I thought everyone ate Wolf Brand Chili. And that they ether ate it w/ crackers of Fritos. And... that maybe I was the only one who liked to stir them in w/ my chili so they would get kinda soggy.
It did not dawn on me till years later, after my PawPaw had passed on, that he had invented the Frito Pie. Except... that some crazy folks like me, thought the chili should maybe be on top. And that everyone didn't eat Wolf Brand Chili. And that many people didn't know to eat Fritos w/ their chili. And, that there were some crazy folks who even ate cornbread w/ chili. Didn't they know that cornbread was to eat w/ pinto and butter beans? And the crazyest thing I had heard was that some folks didn't even know to pour the Fritos out of the bag. And they would just put chili right in the bag on top of the Fritos.
It was not untill many years later that a walk around chili pie was sold at the State Fair of Texas. I had heard that someone got this idea at a baseball game. I thought it was a bad idea because the bag got to hot. But, folks were buying it so maybe they just didn't care that the bag got hot. You sure could NOT walk around w/ a Frito Chili Pie the way most folks in Texas made it. So, this way folks could walk around eating Chili Pie at the fair.
Long story short... my Grandfather Charles Leroy "Roy" Newton (just in case some of my long lost realiteves read this) invented the Frito Chili Pie. But... he invented it upside down! But... he alsways thought that folks who liked soggy fritos, including me, were kinda strange.
Anyway (No.6);
Believe it or not!
Joe
Oh, I might be able to find a few wittnesses who are still alive. But... why would I want to?
Important Edit! My Grandfather never ate a can of Wolf Brand Chili that contained beens! But he did not look down on those who did. But, he never the less thought that beans, eatin with cornbread, should be a main dish all their own.
And, I have mentioned this Frito Pie deal a few times around here, in years gone by, but never botherd to tell the whole story. Who would believe it anyway?
Another Edit; At this point in my life I guess I could quote Rhett Butler... but I won't.
<message edited by PapaJoe8 on Sat, 11/13/10 1:12 PM>
